Feasibility Study for the Establishment of a Rhino Sanctuary for Black and White Rhinos at Ziwa Ranch, Buruuli, Uganda

FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A RHINO SANCTUARY FOR BLACK AND WHITE RHINOS AT ZIWA RANCH, BURUULI, UGANDA Rob Brett Coordination with National and Continental Rhino Conservation Semester 5 task 1.3-1.4 PUBLICATION CREDITS: Title: Feasibility Study for the Establishment of a Rhino Sanctuary for Black and White Rhinos at Ziwa Ranch, Buruuli, Uganda Author: Rob Brett Date: June 2002 Special Yvonne Verkaik, Wilhelm Möller, Capt Joe Roy, Mr & Mrs Bruce Hawthorn, Richard acknowledgements: Lamprey, Moses Mapesa, Arthur Mugisha, Kenya Airways (Kampala) This report is an output from a task of the SADC Regional Programme for Rhino Conservation ABOUT the SADC Regional Programme for Rhino Conservation: The Programme is funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate General for Development Cooperation (Project AID 5064). The Programme is contracted to CESVI and implemented through a regional consortium which comprises: The Secretariat of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) IUCN-ROSA (The World Conservation Union - Regional Office for Southern Africa) The IUCN African Rhino Specialist Group WWF-SARPO - (World Wide Fund for Nature - Southern Africa Regional Programme Office) CESVI (Cooperazione e Sviluppo) The Programme goal is to contribute to maintain viable and well distributed metapopulations of Southern African rhino taxa as flagship species for biodiversity conservation within the SADC region. The Programme objective is to implement a pragmatic regional rhino strategy within the SADC region following the acquisition of sound information on, firstly, the constraints and opportunities for rhino conservation within each range state and secondly, the constraints and opportunities for rhino metapopulation management at the regional level. DISCLAIMER The information, opinions and materials presented herewith do not necessarily reflect the official views of any of the organisations involved, including the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, SADC, CESVI, IUCN- ROSA, WWF-SARPO, AfRSG or governments of SADC member countries. CONTACT DETAILS FOR THE PROGRAMME: Dr. Rob Brett SADC Secretariat SADC Regional Rhino Programme Coordinator Directorate of Food, Agriculture and Natural IUCN-ROSA Resources 6 Lanark Road Belgravia PO Box 745 Harare, P O Box 0095 Gaborone Botswana Zimbabwe Tel: 263-4-728266 Fax: 263-4-720738 Email: [email protected] CESVI Zimbabwe Office Ministero degli Affari Esteri 9 Northwood Rise, Mt Pleasant, Harare, Direzione Generale per la Cooperazione allo Zimbabwe Sviluppo, Unità Tecnica Centrale TEL/ FAX: 263-4-882243, 884492, 850898 Viale Contarini (angolo Viale Farnesina) EMAIL: [email protected] 00194 ROMA ITALY PROGRAMME WEB SITE: We invite you to vist our web site : www.rhino-sadc.org 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS BACKGROUND & RATIONALE 4 PROCEDURE AND SOURCES OF DATA 4 OVERVIEW OF THE BURUULI AREA FOR RHINO CONSERVATION 5 DESCRIPTION OF ZIWA RANCH 7 Land Area and Topography 7 Rainfall 9 Soils and Vegetation 9 Other herbivores 10 HABITAT SUITABILTY AND STOCKING DENSITIES FOR RHINOS 10 Black rhinos 10 White rhinos 11 OPTIONS FOR RHINO CONSERVATION AREAS EXAMINED 13 Option A – Ziwa Ranch 15 Option B – Internal Rhino Sanctuary 16 Option C – Extended Rhino Conservation Area/Conservancy 17 CONCLUSION 19 RECOMMENDATIONS 20 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 23 REFERENCES 23 ANNEX I TERMS OF REFERENCE 24 3 BACKGROUND & RATIONALE In recent years there has been a strong motivation from within Uganda to reintroduce the species of rhinoceros (eastern black - Diceros bicornis michaeli, and the northern white - Ceratotherium simum cottoni) that became extinct in the country by the early 1980’s. Since 1997, Rhino Fund Uganda (RFU), with the support of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has been the focus of efforts to achieve this. A feasibility study for the reintroduction of white and black rhinos to Uganda (Brett 1998) identified the most suitable areas for reintroduction in the medium-long term (Murchison Falls NP) and short term (Nshara Ranch/Lake Mburo NP), based on agreed reintroduction guidelines and relative rating of candidate areas, and recommended that southern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum simum) be considered for introduction as an alternative to northern whites. Subsequently, the Nshara area could not be secured for rhino conservation and after a dormant period a revitalised RFU began work on a phased approach for reintroduction, commencing with the import of pair of southern white rhinos to a new captive facility at UWEC in Entebbe. Following the successful establishment of these white rhinos at the UWEC exhibit in 2001, the second phase in the RFU’s efforts to reintroduce rhinos to Uganda has been the identification of a private ranch in Nakasongola district. Private ranches in the Buruuli area were examined in brief within the 1998 study, and had promise in the short term as potential rhino sanctuaries, particularly given their relatively secure central location within Uganda, well away from international borders. The long-term objective remains to establish a large viable population of black and/or white rhinos within Murchison Falls NP, which has the largest area of suitable habitat for both species within former range, once adequate protection and management capacity in this area can be assured. The sanctuary establishment phase has now been strongly bolstered by the offer of the use of one ranch (Ziwa Ranchers Ltd) in Buruuli for the purpose of breeding eastern black rhinos, southern white rhinos and/or northern white rhinos (should a breeding group of the latter become available from captive populations and the (only) in situ population). With this land becoming available, a more detailed evaluation of its suitability and feasibility for rhino conservation was required, and this report presents the findings of this assessment, including recommendations for development and management of the area and neighbouring land units with rhino conservation as a focus for wildlife-based land use. The evaluation and this report resulted from a five-day mission to Uganda by the author in January 2002, including 3 days spent at Ziwa ranch and 2 days in Kampala, the work based on preliminary terms of reference drawn up by RFU (Annex I). PROCEDURE AND SOURCES OF DATA Ziwa ranch and some surrounding areas were visited from 29th to 31st January 2002. This visit included a ground survey of all areas of the ranch accessible by vehicle, and a GPS survey of all tracks, fence lines and cut lines on the ranch, with point positions recorded at habitat areas inspected, where digital photographs were taken. The length of riverine grassland along the Lugogo River was also covered on foot. All tracks and routes driven or walked, and all point locations recorded, were logged as tracks and waypoints on a Garmin GPS receiver, and downloaded to PC. The visit was made 4 during the dry season (see Rainfall, below); at this time there were few forbs/herbaceous plants visible, and several areas of grassland were being burnt. GIS data compiled for the production of maps and spatial analysis were derived from five sources (below): (i) GPS survey of Ziwa ranch, described above, comprising mainly boundaries and tracks (ii) Point, line and polygon features digitised into GIS from a raster scan of the north-eastern corner of the 1:50,000 topographic map sheet KITONGOLO 50/1 (iii) Ranch boundaries entered into GIS by triangulation from bearing and distance data taken from title deeds of two portions of Ziwa ranch (the south eastern and south western corners of the ranch adjacent to the Lugogo river) (iv) GIS data for the KITONGOLO 1:50,000 sheet acquired by RFU from the National Biomass Study (NBS) of the Uganda Forest Department (FD), specifically data on administrative boundaries, infrastructure, rivers, land cover (use, including broad classes of vegetation and land use, stocking levels, wet/dry land, and % bush/vegetation cover), and elevation (500 ft contours). The NBS 1:50,000 dataset is derived from satellite imagery from the early 1990s. (v) Areas of land adjacent to Ziwa ranch drawn as free-hand polygons by the Ziwa ranch manager, including information on the approximate size of areas and current ownership. GIS data layers from these sources (including NBS ArcView .shp files) were imported into MapMaker Pro, and projected in UTM for the production of a land cover map (Figure 1), a sanctuary area/boundary planning map (Figure 3), and spatial analysis. Interviews and meetings with ranch employees, RFU representatives and board members, and senior staff of UWA in Kampala took up the remaining time of the five- day mission. OVERVIEW OF THE BURUULI AREA FOR RHINO CONSERVATION The rationale for possible selection of private land in the central part of Uganda for rhino conservation was given in the 1998 feasibility study, and can be summarised as follows: • A central area is likely to have reduced risk and vulnerability to poaching due to its location away from international borders, and not suffer from consequences of any residual instability or rebel activity within or bordering Uganda. • A private land area may offer a higher degree of control over development and management in partnership with a donor/NGO compared with a government land or a UWA-managed protected area • As part of a sanctuary or protection zone for rhinos, other important wildlife concentrations in the area could also be protected (e.g. including some of the important remaining populations of ungulates found along the lower (north) end of the Kafu river basin (Lamprey and Michelmore 1996b)) 5 • There is potential for integration of existing cattle ranching operations with game ranching, in addition to the benefits of using rhinos as a catalyst for developing a wildlife-based economy in the area. • There are useful and important precedents elsewhere in African rhino range states where private sector rhino conservation initiatives (e.g. Kenya sanctuaries, Zimbabwe conservancies) have provided vital additional or alternative areas for conserving rhinos, particularly when remnant populations in government protected areas have been vulnerable or seriously depleted by poaching.

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